Welcome to my internet diary... I am 30 years old, I'm a local Thetford Town Councillor and a Breckland Councillor - representing the Burrell Ward and I am Leader of the Labour Group on Breckland Council, I am also a Norfolk County Councillor representing the Thetford-West division. Editor of the About Thetford magazine and Park Run attendee. I am a passionate community activist and Thetford born and bred.

Monday, 28 October 2013

Madam Chairman, like many
members, but particularly for newer members of this Council, I have found that
the information to consume for this debate has been vast, but worse than that,
there have been so many conflicting pieces of information.

I have found it difficult to
believe what is fact and what is fiction? I have found it difficult to decide
how I should be voting.

For myself; the primary
aspect that I have based my decision on, is the referendum that was held. I am
here, indeed I believe we are all here, because we believe in democracy. I
simply cannot ignore that 65,000 people voted against this project in West
Norfolk. I simple cannot ignore that a majority of Councillors were returned to
this Council in May on the basis of opposing this incinerator.

I witnessed, as an ordinary
member of the public, the disgraceful way in which the West of our County was
treated by the last Tory administration. I witnessed how leading members of
this Council bullied and belittled anti-incinerator campaigners who were only
after all exercising their democratic right - the actions of those individuals will
forever be a stain on this authorities’ reputation and I will not align myself
to this behaviour.

Trust in politicians is at
an all-time low, faith in democracy to resolve our problems is decreasing. What
a tragedy that this will only be compounded by this issue, when actually it
should be motivating people to be involved so that it never happens
again.

I will not vote for a
situation that I believe to be fundamentality wrong. For me, voting for this to
proceed would condone what action has gone before, and I will therefore,
despite the financial risks, not vote for this incinerator.

Incineration itself is an
outdated and obsolete solution – it is a process that admits that society has
been unable to deal with its own waste. Like some monster fit for Halloween
itself, it consumes our rubbish, without regard for the fact that much of it
could have been recycled or not used at all. The focus should be on reducing
our consumption, rather than burning away our mistakes. This technology is
outdated, it is costly, and it is not wanted in Norfolk.

Madam Chairman, I find it
hard to comprehend how we can find ourselves in this position at all. I find it
hard to grasp that the Conservative group of this Council could be so
negligent, so arrogant as to push this project through to the extent that it
has been. And now we are told that we cannot even afford to pay to terminate
this project without massive cuts to services – that is arrogance from the past
Tory group of the highest possible degree; putting in safeguards that do not
give any opportunity to cancel whatsoever, an attitude that has resulted
in a situation where it would appear to be ‘incinerator or bust’.

Councils are notoriously
risk adverse, but yet we are told that despite a very real risk of this project
failing, we would be unable to afford a penalty clause that this Council agreed
to. It would seem that either someone somewhere has been grossly negligent, or,
forced into situations that they should not have been.

This incinerator train was
set in motion a long time ago, be under no doubt, a failure to stop this incinerator
from happening, or the financial burden that may result, rests with nobody other
than the previous Conservative administration of this Council. This situation
represents to a far greater degree the lengths to which some people were
prepared to go to, to ensure that it happened, rather than a failure on the
part of anybody trying to stop it.

Monday
2nd September: Attended Norfolk County Council
Cabinet meeting at 9.30am, and attended Croxton Road Residents Group at
7.30pm.Updated the group on the situation with play areas in Thetford and
presented my Councillors report for August.

Tuesday
3rd September: Catching up with various casework
issues and responding to emails and telephone messages. Undertook preparation
for Full Council at Breckland on Thursday.

Thursday 5th September: Breckland Council meeting
in Dereham this morning. I spoke on the Agenda item concerning the loss of the
Council’s Chief Executive (Trevor Holden) and Deputy Chief Executive (Mark
Stokes):

I
said: “There are some here today who, upon learning that several senior
officers are leaving an authority branded that authority “rudderless”. I speak
of course of recent Conservative comments regarding Norfolk County Council.
However, if we were to compare the percentage of Breckland officers leaving, or
already left, versus that of the county, perhaps we should be mulling the loss
here of not just our rudder, but also our steering wheel and sails.

Mr
Chairman, I find it troubling that this authority has been left in a position
where it is making what are ultimately rushed decisions, due to the fact that
another authority now, understandably, wants its Chief Executive back. For a
temporary arrangement, this has gone on for quite some time with no apparent
progress made in the interim. And if progress has been made, we’re certainly
not being told about it as a Full Council and I am left to make my own
assumptions. But, Mr Chairman, we’re not just facing the loss our Chief Exec on
this occasion, we faced the loss of the previous one not so long ago, and we’ve
got the added complication of the second in command going as well. A rather
significant loss to this Council given that individuals immense knowledge and
experience. But Mr Chairman, further to these two positions, I’m aware of the
loss of several very good members of staff during my time on this council in
the past two years. Which leaves me to conclude, isn’t it time Mr Chairman that
we undertook as a Council to review the reasons for Brecklands staff turnover?
Something’s clearly not right, and if indeed the new Leader wants to move
forward on a solid footing, we need to ascertain this information. So I’d like
to propose that as an amendment to this recommendation.

Proposed:
For the Council to carry-out a review of the senior staff turnover over the
past three years to see what lessons can be learned”.

The
proposal was rejected by Councillors, with Conservatives voting against.

Sunday 8th
September: I attended the Norfolk County Labour Group meeting at 10am to
discuss County matters and the forthcoming Full Council meeting.

Monday 9th
September: I attended the Town Council Amenities Committee at 6pm, and spoke
in relation to play areas – I urged the Council to now take on the play areas
from Breckland Council or we would never see them improved. I then attended the
monthly meeting of the Thetford Community Association.

Tuesday 10th September: Attended Norfolk County Council Community
Services Overview & Review Panel meeting at 10am, discussed adult social
services in Norfolk and museums. Attended Breckland Youth Advisory Board (YAB)
in Dereham at 5.30pm, new funding will be made available to groups in Breckland
to tackle bullying, sexual health matters, drugs and alcohol and diversity
matters. Went to Thetford Town Council Planning Committee at 7pm – spoke
regarding proposals for electoral ward boundaries in the Town. Very pleased that
the Town Council supported my recommendation which was to merge the proposed
Abbey and Redcastle Wards into one, two member ward (rather than two, single
member wards).

Thursday 12th September: Attended Safer Thetford Action Group meeting
at 10am.Spoke regarding concern for Flagship garage blocks – empty garage
blocks will continue to be boarded up by chip-board! Fire Service expressed
concern at the state of the garage blocks and the risk that they pose to their
fire-fighters. A tour would be undertaken prior to bonfire night to clear as
much debris from the garage blocks as possible. Discussion also regarding
motorbikes and excessive usage, particularly around Barnham Common.

Friday 13th September: Attended Moving Thetford Forward Programme
Delivery Panel (PDP). Spoke against the proposals for the temporary
arrangements for the bus station when the current site becomes unavailable and
the Minstergate site becomes operational. No shelter / waiting facilities, no
parking, no arrangements for dropping off / picking up, no arrangements to
limit unauthorised parking in areas such as the Chase car park or around
Newtown, no alterations to traffic lights along London Road - (I suggested the
installation of a button to control the lights to make it safer for pedestrians)
– and all this was costing a minimum of £50,000. I said that it would make much
more sense to move the bus station straight from its current site to the
Minstergate one, saving a lot of money and preventing considerable disruption
and preventing a potential health and safety nightmare.

Monday 16th September: Full Council at Norfolk County Council.
Group meeting from 9-10am and then Full Council from 10am – 3pm. I was formally
welcomed to my first County meeting by the Chairman – Hilary Cox. At 6.30pm I
attended the monthly meeting of the Barnham Action Group and presented my August
Councillors report.

Thursday 19th September: Visited a resident in St Johns Way to
discuss concerns about parking and visited a resident in Williamson Crescent to
talk about a possible house exchange and concerns about repairs to their
Flagship property.

Whilst I
was at conference I was very saddened to hear of yet another attack on a girl
in the wooded area between the Redcastle and Abbey Estates. I was contacted by
the press for my reaction to this incident and I commented as follows;

“I
am Very concerned at yet another attack so soon after the previous one.
Thetford is not an unsafe place, but people have got to consider their personal
safety to deny people the opportunity to undertake these attacks”.

I
followed this up with a discussion with the local police and asked what action
they would be undertaking, they responded as follows:

“As
an update, we have put the woods as one of our taskings which means it will be
patrolled every evening and we have to log our results on our daily briefings.
We are stopping and accounting a number of people when we do this. I also have
some posters I will be putting up in the next couple of days. Also we have
delivered letters to a number of addresses in the area to make them aware there
is a problem and assure them we are dealing.If you would still like to meet I’m
happy to try for another date that suits”.

It was
fantastic to see so many young people attending and being recognized for their
commitment to this project and their commitment to their own personal
development. The evening was particularly poignant as we launched the Teresa
Judge Award, in memory of Teresa, one of our founding members of the charity
who sadly passed away this year.

Friday, 4 October 2013

Having had a male delegate in 2012 to the national Labour Party conference (i.e. me!), our Constituency Labour Party (CLP) had to send a female delegate this year. Cllr Brenda Canham was chosen as the delegate. I
booked to go along as well to support Brenda and attend several
fringe meetings and training sessions. In the end I was asked to go and act as
the assistant for Richard Howitt MEP as his normal assistant was unavailable at
short notice - as some of you will know I work on a part-time basis for Richard undertaking constituency liaison work.

Conference is particularly busy for any elected official, but
particularly for MEPs this year - being the conference in advance of the
European elections in 2014. Conference began with the East of England reception
on the Saturday night - all national party figures attended this including Ed
Balls, Harriet Harman and Ed Milliband (photo above shows Ed speaking at the reception, where he repeated his commitment to stop the bedroom tax). There were various other receptions
that evening as well.

Sunday began with the Eastern region delegates briefing
followed by a rally held at the Odeon cinema re: the European elections - Alex
Mayer number 2 for Labour for the Eastern Region spoke at this and did very
well as did all the other speakers. Labour candidates for the European elections seem to be of a very high calibre.

The highlight of Sunday evening was the RSPCA beer and
curry event - not just a highlight because of the curry (which was very tasty!)
but because the RSPCA and other guests spoke passionately about their duty to
protect animals. I managed to get a few 'Stop the badger cull' pin badges and stickers to pass around to local party members.

Richard Howitt MEP meeting with Eastern region representatives

Monday was a very busy day as the bulk of functions that
Richard needed to attend occurred on the Monday so it was important to be well
organised. In the morning Richard was lucky enough to be called to speak in the
international debate section of conference. Richard spoke regarding European
matters and highlighting UKIP and Tory MEP voting records - he reminded
delegates that "it really does matter who you elected to the European
Parliament" - asking those present to do all they can to maximise the vote
for the Labour Party in 2014.

Also on Monday, I attended debates relating to
Israel and Palestine - a very emotive subject and naturally, the debates were
really quite fiery.

Tuesday started with a number of meetings with selected
parliamentary candidates for the Eastern Region including North Norfolk,
South Norfolk, Southend & Rochford, South Suffolk and others. The Leaders speech was on
Tuesday afternoon and I thought that Ed did very well and has continued to
outline some very clear differences between the Labour Party and the
Conservatives. There were some clear policy pledges, including a firm
commitment to axe the bedroom tax and freeze energy prices until January 2017
if Labour were to win the election in 2015.

Ed Milliband addressing the Labour Party conference

The frozen energy bill that appeared in the conference hall to symbolise the commitment to freezing energy bills

On Wednesday I attended a fringe entitled "Does
Labour have a UKIP problem?". I was pleased to see a lot of people
attending this and pleased to see virtually everyone attending recognise that
UKIP was indeed a threat to the Labour Party. There were numerous examples
given of seats that would normally elect a Labour representative instead being won by UKIP and I was pleased to
be able to highlight my own Thetford example. A joke was shared to highlight
the message put out by UKIP and the Tories, it went something like this; "there was a banker, an immigrant, a
voter and a politician and there was a pack of 10 biscuits. The banker takes 8
biscuits. The politician then says to the voter, watch out mate that immigrant
is going to steal your biscuit".Conference is also a great opportunity to meet up friends friends and make new ones. I went along to a Labour karoke with Jane Basham, the fantastic Labour parlimanetary candidate for South Suffolk and Luke Cresswell a member for that CLP as well as Sandy Martin who helped me a lot of with my by-election campaign and I met Tracey, who I'd never met before, but helped with telecanvassing for the by-election.

Wednesday, 2 October 2013

Fifty people
packed into the Annual General meeting of the Thetford Community Association
last week to witness local young people being recognized for their sporting and
gardening efforts.

Thirteen year old Mason Nembhard
received a new award set-up by the committee to recognize a founding member of
the committee that passed away earlier this year. Teresa Judge was one of the
first people to join the charity when it formed in 2000 but tragically passed
away this year after suffering from cancer. Mason was chosen by the TCAs
football coaches to receive the Teresa Judge Award in recognition of his very
good attendance and excellent attitude and dedication. Mason received a trophy
and a £50 voucher for Sainsbury’s.

Speaking at the event, Chairman of the
TCA, Andy Richardson said; “We began as a very small group of 5 or 6 people and
have managed to keep the Ballpark open for 10 years and we have delivered a
whole number of additional activities including weekly football coaching
sessions, a gardening club and a cooking club. We need for more committee
members though to take the charity forward and I would urge people to come
forward and offer their support”.

Organisations that have financially
supported the TCA were also recognized, including; Thetford Town Council,
Breckland Youth Advisory Board, Shadwell Stud and Flagship Housing.

All attendees of the football coaching
sessions over the past few months received a medal and a certificate at the
meeting held last Thursday evening at the Meet Up Café. Special awards were
awarded to Jay Marston, for good attendance, Kai Lott, for most improved player
and best attitude to Ricardo Taverez. Young people that attend the TCAs weekly
gardening project were also recognized with youngsters receiving packets of
seeds and gardening tools as a reward for good behavior and effort.

For more information about the Thetford
Community Association, to make a donation to help cover costs or to volunteer
as a coach, or as a TCA committee member, please contact 07742157967.

Tuesday, 1 October 2013

On Friday 29th Sept myself, Angus and Councillor Brenda Canham travelled to Les Ulis to represent Thetford Town Council at a commemoration of the twinning link between
the two towns. We left Thetford at 11am so that we could arrive in Les Ulis for
around early evening time but thanks to delays on the A11 getting out of
Thetford and past Elveden, the M11 being completely shut and then delays on the
M25 and Dartford Crossing - we didn't arrive into Les Ulis until gone midnight
and we were naturally very tired! On Saturday we rested in the morning and then
after breakfast we had a look around the shopping centre and main park before
we met up with our hosts. They gave us a very informative tour around Les Ulis
library ('mediatheque') and swimming pool ('piscine') and they took us to see examples
of community centres and youth projects as well as a tour around some of the
main housing areas. We were interested to learn that 80% of Les Ulis residents live in apartments and 60% of the
population is under 30! We were amazed at the facilities that were on offer and
Les Ulis Council clearly spends a lot of money on sports, recreation and
culture. We also visited a skatepark, a football area (sponsored by Thierry Henry - who was born in Les Ulis) and other youth facilities.

In the evening we attended the official welcome reception hosted by
the Mayor of Les Ulis Sonia Dahou. We were treated to some traditional French food
and greeted in French by the Mayor who presented us each with a gift. We in
turn read out a speech from the Mayor of Thetford - Cllr Stuart Wright and
presented Les Ulis with a framed picture of Kings House.

Talking with the Mayor
of Les Ulis was very interesting - she is directly elected by the residents of
the town and she is elected for a period of 6 years (the current Mayor has only
been in office for a year as she was appointed by the last Mayor as she went on
to become the MP for Les Ulis at a national election). Being the Mayor of Les Ulis is a full-time role. The 'municipal' or Council has 800 staff - and
it took some time to explain about Thetford Town Council and it's
responsibilities and the role of Breckland and Norfolk Councils. After the
reception we visited an African music concert - reflecting Les Ulis's diverse
culture with a lot of African inhabitants (Les Ulis is also twinned with Sedhiou in Senegal).

On Sunday morning we visited a traditional French flea market - there
had been torrential rain earlier in the morning so I felt very sorry for the
stall holders who were braving it out! there was some food and drink prepared
for us and other guests. We were then given a tour around the Council run greenhouse /
allotment. 25 people work there and they grow all the plants to service the
towns shrub beds and planters etc - they explained that they have been making a
considerable effort to make Les Ulis a very green and pleasant place. The area
also served as an allotment where school groups and youth groups could visit
and learn about growing fruit and vegetable. There was also an aviary of sorts
that housed stray cats found in the area which were then re-housed. After this
we were treated to a Portuguese dish of fish and mashed potato - Les Ulis is
also twinned with a town in Portugal.

Big thank-you to Angus for accompanying us on the trip and not only helping with the driving (I was rather poorly and tired after a busy conference week!) but he also helped with translating and taking pictures - thankyou x